Anita Raheja presents a cherished recipe for Mithi Dabal, a mouth-watering Sindhi speciality which is often relished during cold wintry mornings.
Custom demands that when the daughter of the house is engaged to be married, this delicacy be sent to the in-laws' house. At such times, the dish is enriched by garnishing with saffron, cardamom and pistachios.
Photograph: Kind courtesy: Guddu1996/Wikimedia Commons
Mithi Dabal Or Sweet Bread
Serves: 5 (10 slices)
Ingredients
- 10 slices bread
- 2 cups milk
- Oil for deep frying the bread
- Few pistachios, optional
For the syrup
- 2½ cups sugar
- 15-20 strands kesar or saffron, soaked in 1 tsp water
- 6-7 green elaichi or cardamom, powdered
- 3 cups water
Method
- Pour all the milk into a flat thali or dish.
Dip one slice of bread at a time into the milk, allowing it to soak well.
- Heat the oil and deep-fry each milk-soaked slice over a medium heat until golden and crisp.
Keep aside
- Side by side, begin preparing the sugar syrup by combining the sugar and the water and bringing it to a boil over medium heat.
After 5 minutes, add the saffron, cardamom powder.
Continue boiling for about 20 minutes until the syrup reaches one-thread consistency and take off heat.
Immerse each freshly-fried slice into the hot syrup and let it soak for 5 minutes.
Garnish with finely chopped pistachios before serving.
Anita's Note: To check one-thread consistency, take a spoonful of the hot boiling syrup and let it cool slightly.
Dip your thumb and forefinger into the syrup.
Gently pull your fingers apart.
If the syrup forms a single, unbroken thread between your fingers, it has reached one-thread consistency.
Anita Raheja, food columnist for 25 years and the author of Simply Sumptuous Sindhi Cooking.